Re: Where should a novice begin?

In article <4v09h21f29k57log462j528rokq0rg161d@xxxxxxx>,
JAF <bscinc@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

On Fri, 22 Sep 2006 13:47:58 -0700, John <mjensen@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

snip

Why in heaven's name do you want to come out of retirement? I mean, are
you crazy or something!!!

Blame it on Enron and Katrina. My financial broker talked me into
buying a lot of Enron and Worldcom some years ago. He is no longer my
broker.

Plus I had a consulting business that I semi retired from, letting a
manager run it for me. It was based in New Orleans, my original
hometown. Now my clients and employees are scattered all over the US.

So with three teenagers all needing cars, braces and college, I am
back in the work place. Lucky me.


For reference, Project is probably the least user friendly of the MS
Office suite of applications. There is generally a long learning curve
and some features that are common in other MS applications are either
non-existent or disguised under a different name in Project (my favorite
is word wrap).

I have never cared for any of the MS Office Suite products. None of
them work as well as other competitng products. (Let's not get into a
flame war though. I didn't post for that reason.)

I am looking o use MS Project because after many years of managing
projects by the seat of my pants, I am now getting back into the work
place. It seems every company I apply to looks for the PMP
certification, which I am working on, and about half of them use MS
Project and the Office Suite. The other half of the companies use
various other project management software, with no one software
dominating the local market.

So I figured that while looking for a position, I would finish with my
PMP and then start to learn MS Project.

snip
Then play, play, play. It may take some time,
but if you are interested enough you will eventually learn enough to be
dangerous, just the the rest of us :-)

If you have specific questions, post a message. We are here to help.

John
Project MVP

One specific questions is what do I need to do to set up MS Project,
at least to get my toes wet with it?

I have Ms Project 2000 and could install that on my desktop. Can I
set it up to be a stand alone app, i.e. can I avoid installing the
server? I don't need to go that far, at least to get started.

Thanks for your post
Best regards,

JAF
http://www.bscinc.net

JAF,
I feel for you with regard to being in the wrong place at the wrong
time. Life can turn on you that way. Good luck with your new endeavor.

I think Mike answered your follow-on questions but let me expand just a
bit. You said you have Project 2000. That version had a companion called
Project Central which I guess was the forerunner of what is now Project
Server. Project 2000 is a very good starting point as long as you make
sure you have the SR-1 update. Go ahead and install it if you haven't
already.

If you plan on working extensively with clients, I recommend you upgrade
to Project 2003 Professional. It is the stand alone version that is
compatible with Project Server but does not require Server to be
installed. Like Mike, I do not do Server.

The latest version of Project is Project 2007 (i.e. Project 12). It is
still in beta release and you can download a trail version from the
Microsoft website. If I recall, its official full release is scheduled
for later this year or early next year. I understand it has some nice
new features but I haven't tried it so I can't say any more about it.

For reference Project 2000 through 2003 are all compatible, that is,
files can be readily exchanged between them. Of course, Project 2003 has
some fields/features that do not exist in Project 2000 so some
information may be lost if files are exchanged back and forth between
versions.

I personally have Project 98, Project 2000 and Project 2003 Pro all
loaded on my PC together. Although this is not a recommended approach,
but it fills my need to be able to answer posts for a wide variety of
users.

John
Project MVP
.

Relevant Pages

  • RE: Custom Build
    ... >> sets up the file system (1 hard drive per server) and then reboots. ... >> The only interaction that should happen during the install, ...
    (freebsd-questions)
  • Re: Paging File. TIA.
    ... >Don't know if this will help, but I had a similar problem with Server ... Turns out I had bad RAM. ... >slapped a couple of new sticks in the box I was trying to install 2003 ...
    (microsoft.public.cert.exam.mcse)
  • Re: [SLE] Still cant get X font server problem resolved.
    ... I thought that the X server didn't need this anymore. ... find the fonts listed in the directories. ... either remove the paths in the XF86Config file or you can install the ...
    (SuSE)
  • Re: New Event Log Errors!
    ... Somehow along those lines I'd also installed the Certificate Authority ... Did you apply the last Server Pack for SBS Server? ... Please install Windows Support Tools on the win2k3 sp1 problematic ... Microsoft is providing this information only as a convenience to you: ...
    (microsoft.public.windows.server.sbs)
  • Re: Cannot activate SBS 2003 SP2
    ... everywhere and sitting on the case of the server is the old board - balanced ... slip stream SBS you would have had it ages ago. ... My main reason for slipstreaming the install is because I cannot get ... updates that need to be applied if one is to have a succesful outcome ...
    (microsoft.public.windows.server.sbs)